I would suggest making reservations, especially if you travel to Skye during the peak tourism months of April – September (ish). 

Even though I was visiting during the off season, I made a 6:30 dinner reservation to make sure I could eat at this amazing restaurant, especially since it was so close to where I was staying.  If you stay at The Three Chimneys hotel, they automatically give you dinner reservations during your stay.  The hotel portion looks lovely from the photos online.

I arrived at the restaurant at 6:20.  There is a small parking lot across from the restaurant.  I imagine that lot would get full very fast, and the overflow parking is merely parking on the side of the road, which I am always loathe to do, for fear of parking badly and having another car hit me.  I digress. 

When I arrived at the restaurant, it was completely empty.  I was literally the only person there.  The wait staff were extremely friendly, and I asked them if it was normal for the restaurant to be this empty.  Apparently people in the UK enjoy later dinners, and the waiter said by 7:30 or 8 pm, the place would be completely full.  And sure enough, it was.

There are two dinner menu options, the dinner tasting menu (3 courses for £69) and the Skye Land and Sea tasting menu (8 courses for £98).  The restaurant requests that the diners at the table order the same tasting menu, probably to alleviate timing issues of one person having three courses and the other having eight.  But, why eat three courses when you can easily have eight?  So obviously, I selected the Land and Sea menu. Everything on that menu was either caught in the loch (lake) outside of the restaurant or farmed on Skye or in the Scottish Highlands.

Bread

First, they brought me some bread and butter.  Full disclosure, even though I told myself I wouldn’t eat all the bread, I really couldn’t help myself.  Foreshadowing: that was my mistake and I should try harder in the future not to stuff myself on bread and butter.

Two different types of sourdough bread and a rye + dark ale bread. There were two flavors of butter – the left was a claret or carrot butter (sorry, I really didn’t hear, but my first guess was claret. but I can’t be certain). the butter on the right was a delicious seaweed butter. Both were actually delicious, but I still couldn’t figure out what the first butter was.

1st course: Dunvegan Langoustine

Langoustine from the loch, with smoked cod roe, and a variety of carrots (dehydrated, pickled, and crisped). Side note, you’ll remember that langoustine is a favorite in Icelandic cuisine.

2nd course: Dunvegan Crab

Foam from the roasted Dunvegan crab with horseradish, dunvegan crab with salt baked turnip, and almonds. Delicious!!

3rd course: Sconser Scallops

Roasted scallop, on pork belly, with celery and grapefruit. with shrimp chip crumbles on top

4th course: Halibut

Seaweed wrapped miso halibut, with mussels, cockerels, and a fried oyster, on leek. This was probably my least favorite course, mostly because of the giant leek that the mussel was sitting on.  I didn’t feel that it worked very well, and I don’t know – the leek flavor was a little too much for me.

5th course: Mallard Duck

Roasted duck, topped with coriander seeds. rhubarb and spring onions, on the side For me, there was a bit too many coriander seeds on top, but then again, I am the type of person that thinks there is too many coriander seeds in Italian sausage.

6th course: Skye Red Deer

Skye red deer, with roasted beet root, with ash sprinkled on top. a side of haunch hot pot (not pictured).

This was my least favorite plating – it makes a great photo, but it felt morbid, with the beetroot sauce splattered on the plate and the ash sprinkled all over.  I’m not sure if my photo does it justice, but it felt like a vampire fantasy on a plate.

7th course: Lemon Cream

First dessert course – pistachio bread, with lemon cream sorbet, goat curd mousse, and burnt yogurt.

8th course: Baked Apple

Final course – second dessert – donut, with baked apple slices with java pepper crumble and cider cream.

I am usually one to finish everything on my plate, even if I am too full.  But the above donut hole wasn’t anything particularly special, and after one bite, I decided to leave it be.  The java crumble, however, was a surprisingly delicious peppery addition to the baked apple. Nice touch, Three Chimneys!

Parting Thoughts my dinner at Three Chimneys Skye

Although I was completely bursting by the end of the 8th course, the waitress came by with a box of chocolates.  We both looked at each other, her seeing me miserably full, and began to laugh.  But she told me, she understood, but I really had to try some of these chocolates.  Her personal recommendation was the chocolate truffle and the sea salt caramel chocolate. 

And although I thought I was so full that I could not bear it, it turns out there is always room for chocolate. 

All in all, Three Chimneys offered a very unique and delicious tasting menu – the Tastes of the Land and Skye. It’s a wonderful introduction to local wildlife in Scottish cuisine.  Definitely don’t eat too much of the delicious bread that they give you in the beginning, and you may stand a chance.

For other fine dining experiences in Scotland, be sure to check out:

• Monachyle Mhor – spearheaded by Chef Tom Lewis, tucked away in the Trossachs;
• Inver – Chef Pam Brunton’s Michelin Green Star winning dining experience in the heart of Argyll on the west coast.

Restaurant Information for the Three Chimneys Skye

Three Chimneys | map
Colbost, Dunvegan, Colbost,
Isle of Skye IV55 8ZT, United Kingdom
Phone: +44 1470 511258
Reservations Required

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Lannie

Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.  She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!  She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.

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1. Fairy Glens

On my last day at the Spoons, after check out, I ventured out to the Fairy Glens, which is near the town of Uig.  It was about a half hour drive from the Spoons, onto a different peninsula of Skye (called the Trotternish Peninsula). 

I’ve been to some pretty obscure places. However, considering the Fairy Glens are one of the more famous places on Skye, I expected… at the very least, a sign post.  Marie, from the Spoons, warned me that there was limited parking. She pointed out the small road to turn onto, off of the main road (A87).  Just as you’re entering in the town of Uig, there is a small turn off, on your right.  If you’ve pass the Uig Hotel, you’ve gone too far.  It’s genuinely a small turn and a small road, with absolutely no signs.  As you drive along, there are a few (very few) farm houses and lots and lots of sheep.

The only way you know that you’ve arrived at the fairy glens, is this small pond off to the side of the road.  There’s no marker or sign, but the pond is the sign.  It was frozen over in the winter time and luckily there was one car parked there, which meant at least someone is attempting the same thing as me.

There were no signs on which way to go, but I figured just go up.  There was also kind of a path, but not really.

The story is that fairies dwell in the area, and still live in the hills to this day.  Although there isn’t a specific fairy tale (pun intended) that tells the story of the fairies in the area, it’s common knowledge that this is where they live.  After hiking upwards not more than 10 minutes, I came across these large concentric circles of stone, which I’ll be honest – I still don’t know what they are or what they mean.  But I assume that I had arrived at the fairy glens.

Here is a 360 degree video of the fairy glens area, with the howling wind for a soundtrack.  The lack of steadiness is because I am constantly repositioning my feet for security, as the wind keeps blowing at me and making me lose my footing.

Watch this video on YouTube.

2. Fairy Pools

There is another place in Skye, where the fairies bathe. Personally, it seems a far distance to bathe from the Fairy Glens where they live.  Located on the Duirinish peninsula, the Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls, near a forest, at the base of the Cuillin Mountains.  Unlike the glens, there is a large parking lot for tourists to the Fairy Pools. However, there is no sign to point you in the direction of the Fairy Pools. You’ll have to walk across the street, and towards the river to start your journey.

There is a big path (above) from the road down a hill towards the river or creek.  You do have to cross the waters sometimes, but there are very large rocks in place for you to cross safely.  Just be careful of slipping, and if you are like me and carrying a backpack, you’re not as light on your feet when you need to jump across sometimes.  No, don’t worry, I didn’t fall, but I definitely landed shorter than where I expected to, once or twice.  haha

I don’t know if there is a specific fairy pool (online guides say you need to walk about 20 minutes before reaching it), but there were several small waterfalls, which were mostly all frozen over.  In most places the water was frozen or semi-frozen, given the unusually frigid temperatures.  But there was no wind, so it was generally a very relaxing and brisk hike.  Some incline on the way up to see more waterfalls, but not too bad.  The more exhausting incline was on the way back up to the parking lot.

Conclusion on the world of fairies on Skye

So, as you can see, the fairies on Skye live a very magical life in a magical place.  I tend to think of fairies as warm weather creatures, so I can’t imagine they were fairing very well in the freezing temperatures.  But hopefully they survived this unusual frigid weather, as I did, and hopefully spring is just around the corner!

Until next time, the fairies wish you a wonderful day!

Lannie

Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.  She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!  She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.

Click on the blue icons below to follow her on social media!

lanniesfoodandtravel.com/index.php/about-me/

In Scotland, there is no such thing as bad weather…only the wrong clothes.

I must be the luckiest gal alive to be in Europe during the freak “Beast from the East” winter storm.  Snow in Edinburgh crippling the whole city, but I’m not in Edinburgh.  I’m on the Isle of Skye, where temperatures have fallen below freezing for the first time since 2010!  But I am lucky because… I have all of my winter gear from Iceland.  So THANK YOU giant North Face coat and Sorel snow boots!  

1. The Spoons on Skye

My original plan for Skye was to go hiking and work on my essays.  The first day on Skye, windchill was 13°F | -10.5°C.  So hiking?  No thank you.  But I did manage to get some work done, in the coziest, most amazing place I stayed at!  The Spoons on Skye is a “luxury self catering” guesthouse, which to Americans, really just means it is a vacation rental, not a bed and breakfast. 

My stay at the Spoons on Skye was absolutely amazing, and big bonus, they do leave some food for you in the refrigerator for when you arrive (i.e. eggs, delicious bacon, juice, milk, yogurt, granola, and some tomatoes).  It’s actually a huge plus having those provisions, because everything in Skye is close, but takes a long time to get to. 

Portree, the main town on the island, is only a few miles away, but takes about 20 minutes driving to get there… mostly because of potholes and windy roads.  It’s not a single track road, like other roads on the island.  In order to buy anything, you have to go into town.  And when it is cold as it’s been in years on Skye, one is thankful to have some food at home before having to go out and buy more provisions.

And, through much trial and error, I finally figured out how to layer logs in the wood burning stove, and start a fire!  Which is SO COZY when it’s freezing outside.

Isn’t Spoons on Skye the most gorgeous place ever?

Anyone looking for an amazing, cozy, homey and super lovely place to stay, look no further than the Spoons on Skye! It’s extremely highly recommended by yours truly!

Eventually, I did end up venturing outward on the second day.  Hiking in the cold is fine, but hiking when there’s monstrous wind and the cold, can be tough.  Also, since I just got over my Jerusalem illness, I didn’t want to overdo it physically.

2. Hiking the Old Man of Storr

Hiking the Old Man of Storr was something that I knew I had to do on Skye. The Old Man of Storr is a rock formation, located a few miles north of Portree. 

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There is a small parking space, but most people just park up the road from there, since the parking space really only accommodates less than 8 cars (my educated guess).  There is one sign at the beginning and then a gate and the path up. 

It’s fairly steep on the way up, and that’s not to be underestimated.  It was supposed to be 40 minutes (one way) up to visit the Old Man.  I don’t know what pace that equates to, but going at a steep incline, I was taking several breaks “for the view” but also to catch my breath.  haha.  I passed through 3 more gates, and I still didn’t arrive at the Old Man.  Apparently during this time, I had gone up 52 floors, according to my phone.  And not wanting to overdo it, I gave up and started the much funner descent.

3. Visit to Portree

After my exhausting hike, I decided to stop by Portree and take a look around town.  It’s the biggest town on the island, and to be honest, the rest of the places on Skye that you can see on Google Maps are not towns.  They’re maybe a small grouping of houses (probably less than 10), maybe one post office that might double as a store, and likely no restaurants to speak of.  But Portree was a big town, with hotels, a grocery store, shops, restaurants*, and a harbor. 

*There is a little caveat with the restaurants, because most are not open in the off season.  And even then, the ones that are open close during afternoon hours between lunch and dinner, so there is very limited hours of service.

A visit to town isn’t complete without a stop at the co-op, or small grocery store, to stock up on goods.  Bought enough stuff to cook an amazing soup that kept me warm the rest of the day.

Stay tuned, for my next entry on my trip to the Fairy Glens and my road trip around the Trotternish Peninsula!  But for now, I need to pack, as I’m leaving Belfast for Dublin!

Lannie

Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.  She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!  She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.

Click on the blue icons below to follow her on social media!

lanniesfoodandtravel.com/index.php/about-me/